Receiving out-of-market TV stations via Dish Network in the 2000s?

[DevanDrake99]

Was it possible to receive stations from a different market a few hundred miles away ever since Dish first introduced broadcast channels? The out-of-market channels were usually placed between the channel numbers 6000s and the 8000s. I knew you could receive the superstation channels with a $5 monthly charge such as KTLA, KWGN-TV, WPIX, WWOR-TV, and WSBK until 2013, but that's a different story. When I went to Zap2it and used the Boise, Idaho market's zip code for Dish, I also discovered that I could receive the Portland channels as well such as KATU, KOIN-TV, KGW, KOPB-TV, KPTV, KPXG, KRCW-TV, and KPDX. I never had satellite since around 2004 when my family didn't watch much TV.

If that was possible, it would be much helpful to get the syndicated content that wasn't cleared for the smaller markets even if any of the channels from the superstations packages declined to carry them or only carry them weekly, albiet the different time zones.

 

[IM42A]

Dish Network probably wouldn't want viewers getting out-of-market stations, even if the affected areas were within those stations' spotbeam footprints. I have to think that the home markets would resist this.

Case in point, viewers in Eastern Kentucky would surely rather get a Lexington locals package (including WYMT), than watch stations from West Virginia and Tennessee. Only viewers in Boyd, Greenup, and possibly Carter and Lawrence counties would be interested in getting WSAZ from Huntington, and I can't imagine anyone in Southeastern Kentucky would prefer Knoxville or Tri-Cities stations to those from Lexington.

 

[Gregg.]

Of course, if you really wanted stations from a different market that you had ties to, you could say you lived there. Once you got the equipment from Dish, you could move it to another location. The trouble is, you'd have to use a friend or relative's address. And that's where the bills would go.

Could you pay by check? Mail it into Dish? Or did the company expect to have your credit card on file? In that case, you'd also have to use your friend or relative's credit card and pay them whatever they were paying Dish. Maybe that's too complicated.

 

[anotherguyTN]

In the early 2000's I had Dish but went back to Charter after the 2 year deal was up. Where I live was considered part of the Memphis market, but it didn't include the stations in Jackson, TN about 20 miles away, even though I only live about 2 miles away from the tower for WJKT Fox 16. I did some checking about what was included if I had lived in Jackson, and it got even stranger. In the Jackson market I would get WJKT and WBBJ ABC 7, but at that time there were no stations for CBS or NBC in Jackson. It would have made the most sense to get them from either Memphis or Nashville, but instead CBS came from KFVS 12 in Cape Girardeau, MO and NBC came from WPSD 6 in Paducah, KY. As it stands now Dish still has me in the Memphis market, and Jackson is considered its own market with only Jackson area stations, which do include CBS, NBC and PBS, but nothing else.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

As it stands now Dish still has me in the Memphis market, and Jackson is considered its own market with only Jackson area stations, which do include CBS, NBC and PBS, but nothing else.

Presumably if you subscribed to Dish, they would give you an ABC affiliate and a Fox affiliate from some other market?

 

[fybush]

Of course, if you really wanted stations from a different market that you had ties to, you could say you lived there. Once you got the equipment from Dish, you could move it to another location. The trouble is, you'd have to use a friend or relative's address. And that's where the bills would go.

Could you pay by check? Mail it into Dish? Or did the company expect to have your credit card on file? In that case, you'd also have to use your friend or relative's credit card and pay them whatever they were paying Dish. Maybe that's too complicated.

Keep in mind one other piece of this: you would have needed to be within the spot beam coverage for the other market you wanted to subscribe to. And those spot beams can be pretty small these days.

 

[gr8oldies]

Presumably if you subscribed to Dish, they would give you an ABC affiliate and a Fox affiliate from some other market?

I seem to recall if you weren't near an actual market (very rural) you would get the Big 4 from somewhere (not the same market).